Ira Heyman, counselor to the U.S. Department of the Interior and a former chair of the College's Board of Trustees, spoke yesterday about the politics surrounding the fight to save endangered species.
Heyman was part of a panel discussion titled, "Endangered Species: Politics, Ecosystems and Economics," sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program and held in Rockefeller Center.
Heyman is a member of a committee within the Department of the Interior that is pushing for re-authorization of the Endangered Species Act.
Heyman began yesterday's discussion by summarizing problems with the act and his proposed solutions.
"It doesn't matter what system we have, we're going to lose species," Heyman said. "We don't have the time or the resources to prevent this. The key is to maximize."
Business Administration Professor Robert Hansen, another panelist, said a problem with the act is "the finances depend on private property."
The Congressional debate over the act, which requires property owners to relinquish development of land if it poses a threat to an endangered species, revolves around the issue of private property.
Opponents of the Endangered Species Act say it infringes on the rights of the private property owners by asking them not to develop their property and losing potential profit.
Heyman said Habitat Conservation Planning is one solution. The project requires the land owner, upon development, to take precautions to insure the species will still be able to live in their habitat.
But Heyman said the conservation project does not define future restrictions on the land.
The most vehement opposition to the act comes from the Wise Use Movement, which "rejects any interference with land owners' rights," Heyman said. But "most opponents place property regulations protecting people in a different genre from those protecting species," he added.
Hansen said, "The government should listen to the population, if they say it's not worthwhile, then so be it."
Oran Young, Institute for International Environmental Governance director, said many people are concerned about the act's actual effectiveness on the preservation of species over the past 20 years, but no research has been done to find the answer.
Environmental Studies Program Chair Ross Virginia was also on the panel. The mediator was Weyman Lundquist, a visiting scholar with the John Sloan Dickey Center for International Understanding.
